Planning for Prague

I've had a fantastic time in Colorado this month enjoying the mountains and wildlife and my family. I'll try to do a few posts about this magnificent spot before I leave. But at the same time I'm enjoying this fabulous Western state, I've started to get excited about PRAHA!

I have purchased my plane ticket to Prague and I'm leaving November 5th! I was going to leave earlier and my mom said, "How can you bear to miss the election coverage?" She's right. I can't! I put it off to November 5th to at least get a full 24 hours of watching history being made.

How does anyone ever edit everything down to one or two bags when going overseas? It's impossible! Just in shoes alone, every woman must need one whole bag just for them.

This morning I spent rereading letters from my two Czech pen pal families that got me all excited to see the Czech Republic in the first place. How lovely to keep an enthusiasm for over 18 years! That's how long I've had this "thing" for the Czech Republic!

I'm off to find luggage!

How broke is Illinois?

I finished off my visit to Springfield with a visit to the current state capitol (somebody, please move the smokers out of the doorways) and the Museum of Funeral Customs (very interesting actually, especially the video about Lincoln's Death Train).

President Harry Truman had a phrase that "if you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog." The current governor of Illinois might want to make sure he owns one! Every state employee and food server in Springfield had nothing nice to say.

They're angry that so many jobs will be lost when cultural sights that bring tourists to town are shut down. They're angry he refuses to live in Springfield and insteads lives in Chicago, using a private plane to fly back and forth at great expense while state workers are losing their jobs. They're angry the DOT is going to be moved out of Springfield and thousands of state workers will have to uproot their lives. What about the press organizations? Most can barely afford a Springfield bureau. How will they cover the billion dollar business of the Department of Transportation if it's moved down to southern Illinois, they ask. To state employees, it feels like disrespect.

"Why doesn't he shut down the governor's mansion instead of our state parks and cultural heritage sites? He refuses to live in the Governor's mansion and the only use it got was when the Saudi Ambassador came to town to see the Lincoln Museum after the Ambassador gave a gigantic donation," they ask.

Illinois hasn't paid it's bills on time for years (hospitals routinely wait a year to be paid) but one state worker summed up best how broke the State of Illinois is. "This week," she said, "I received a call asking me to count the rolls of toilet paper in my department's storage closet because the State didn't have the money to buy more for other departments running out and needed to know if we had some we could send to other buildings. Now that's broke."

There's no need to worry about freedom of speech in Springfield. The budget, yes. But not freedom of speech.

Route 66 Road Food

If you are young, or European, or both, you may not be familiar with a fabulous American pop song called "Route 66" that was very popular in the 1950s. It's a classic. The song captures all of the freewheeling joy of taking the open road and driving westward across America in the spirit of discovery. The road starts in Chicago and ends somewhere in the southwest like New Mexico or California.

On American roads, there are signs celebrating the local groups that take on the task of picking up litter for two miles at a stretch. One of the groups celebrated on a sign in Illinois was the Route 66 Corvette Club. Now doesn't that just bring you an instant smile? Can't you just imagine their fun "motoring west?'

Springfield, Illinois is right on Route 66. And with that history comes two famous culinary traditions. I had to try them both!

The Cozy Dog Drive-In has been operating since the late 1940s when the owners popularized the forerunner of the Corn Dog. Stopping in this establishment was an exercise in nostalgia for Route 66 road culture.


The other culinary legend Springfield is famous for is the "horseshoe sandwich." This culinary invention had not spread beyond Springfield's borders but I had been told by natives for years that should I get to Springfield I needed to give it a try.

I thought the sandwich was something I would pick up with two hands! Au contraire! This unique creation starts with two thick pieces of Texas Toast, holding the meat of one's choice (I chose hamburger), covered with crinkle-cut french fries, all covered in a Welsh rarebit cheese sauce. There is a "pony" version for those who only want to take in double the recommended daily calories.

America's finest example of Prairie School Architecture

Another thing I had to see in Springfield, Illinois before I left was the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in America that he created that was complete with all of it's original furniture. It's called the Dana-Thomas house. The State of Illinois had announced it was closing the home due to budget cuts.

There is no way any photo can convey the beauty of this home! As I walked up to it, my mouth dropped open and didn't close the whole time I was there. I'm literally not kidding.

As I walked up, what struck me most, was the size and unusual floor plan of the home, followed by the green frieze work unlike anything I have ever seen anywhere else. That green, maybe it's caused by copper patina, glistened in the sun and drew the eye over and over.

Frank Lloyd Wright is known for his horizontal line. One of the ways he achieved it in this house was to make the vertical morter in his brickwork flush with the brick so that only a horizontal line was created. Can you imagine what a painstaking and expensive process that was?

Surprisingly, this house started not as original construction, but as a remodeling job. The aim of the remodeling was not to create a house for cozy living, but rather a showcase for entertaining. Mission accomplished.

Photos were not allowed of the home so please click on the title to go to the website and see images. Creative souls within the state government must find a way to keep this house open to the public! This is more than a state or national treasure, this home is a worthy of international interest.

Shoved outside the Republican tent

It's getting really ugly in the American election.

I come from a loooong line of Republicans; both of my parents were Republican elected officials and I served as the county chairman for a Republican candidate for President in the Iowa caucuses and the presidential election during the 1990s.

This season, I have been told repeatedly that I don't fit the profile of the people Republicans "approve of" to be pro-American and support their candidate. I"m not from a small town, I'm not from what they consider a "pro-American" part of the country, and this morning on CNN GLOBAL television, there was a Republican pastor attacking the 1.2 million members of my faith, the United Church of Christ, as not "biblical" or "Christian enough" because the denomination supports gay marriage (really, news to me? I've never heard it discussed even once in my church). The reason he singled out my denomination is cause it's the same denomination as Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's former pastor.

I can't tell you what it feels like to hear your faith attacked as not "good enough." It's hate speech. And if he would take a look at our congregations, he would see that there's probably a ton of potential Republican voters there. Our congregations actually skew older which is the natural demographic to support the Republican platform. Why alienate us?

I watched the VP debate with six people, who discovered when we all started chatting about our political history, had all left the Republican party cause we no longer felt welcome. Two of them were once elected Republicans. This is exactly what Colin Powell described as the "narrowing" of the party. We have literally been shoved out of the tent.

It reminds me of that poem written by Pastor Martin Niemöller:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

I hope when this election is over, the far right will see that the broad middle are not evil people. We're just people that think everyone in America deserves a voice, regardless of their faith, not just our own folks.

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

Lincoln's words are everywhere in Springfield. It's easy to learn much of them just walking the sites. This is the old State Capitol where Lincoln gave his famous U.S. Senate nomination acceptance. The speech is referred to as "A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand." It's most famous passage:

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South."

This is also the exact spot where Senator Barack Obama
chose to announce his candidacy
for the Presidency of the United States of America
and where he came back to introduce
his new running mate Senator Joe Biden.
It's so fun to hear the locals talk about those two days.

All the locals seemed surprise when I suggested
that the future Obama Presidential Library
would be housed in Springfield.
Heck, if I was the Mayor, I'd already have the lots picked out!

I love the symbolism of Senator Obama
announcing here. Like Lincoln, Senator Obama
is a healer and a uniter, something
this country needs after eight years of polarization.

Lincoln lived a very pedestrian life - his office was immediately
across from the capitol building
and he walked home every night to his house a couple blocks away.

A tourist reincarnation?

This is the Secretary of State's office
in the old capitol. The idea of our current
dynamic and beloved Secretary of State,
Jessie White,
operating in this sedate environment
gave me the giggles-

Call me a complete history geek!

A living tribute to Abraham Lincoln

One of the beautiful ways Abraham Lincoln has been memorialized in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois is through the Lincoln Memorial Garden. In 1936, this tract of land was empty pasture next to Lake Springfield. Legendary Danish-American landscape architect Jens Jensen was chosen to create this incredible tribute in native plants from the states Lincoln inhabited.

What else would surround the entire garden
but a split rail fence-
honoring Lincoln's legend as a logsplitter

Garden Clubs across America
sponsored dozens of park benches
featuring Lincoln's wisdom

I spent an entire morning exploring the six miles
of woodland and prairie Jensen created -
it seemed like five minutes

Jens Jensen loved to create woodland council rings
in all of his work
Can't you imagine sprites and pixies
entering the rings from all sides of the forest?
The circles are often used for
weddings, storytelling, nature programs, even turtle races!

Beautiful Midwestern tall-grass prairie
in the morning sun

The garden was in the middle of a costume change

from summer to fall when I visited

Mushrooms and tree seed pods were every where.
Other amazing times to visit:
in the spring when the dogwoods and crabapples
are blooming, when the fall leaves are out,
when the maple trees are tapped for syrup.